Innovative management practices in Spanish companies compared with the EU framework

Abstract

The paper starts with a reflection on productivity in Spain, from the 1980s until the present. During this period, new forms of work organisation and business management have been introduced. Based on various Spanish and European labour surveys, a comparison of the processes, the organisation, the remuneration, the technology, the allocation of tasks, and the working times is established. Analysed herein are the different positions put forward by theorists in this field, the impact of the 2008 economic crisis, and the restructuring of companies broke down by production sector and business size. The aim of this paper is to discover to what extent the innovation model of Spanish companies has been aligned with the average in the European Union—where their main competitors are located—during the sharpest years of the economic crisis.